The Fox's Second Chance
When he received the order—[Install a portal connecting the Abyss and the Surface]—■■ hesitated.
A sense of dread swept through him. Even after being told that someone else would handle the surface side and that he only needed to set up the portal in the Abyss, the unease refused to fade. If anything, it grew stronger.
‘My instincts are screaming.’
He knew nothing about the Abyss, yet he understood it was no ordinary place. His gut told him it was a place where one had to stake their life.
Who would willingly walk into their own grave? Of course he didn’t want to go.
But.
“Son. We believe in you.”
“We love you.”
“Who else would love you if not us?”
“When you come back successful, let’s have tea together.”
The fake parents bound ■■ with affection.
“Do this one thing well, and I’ll grant freedom to both you and your parents.”
“It’s not difficult. Just install the portal.”
“This is for every Sculpted Soul Master in the world. You’ll be the one to make it happen.”
The Association held those fake parents hostage.
How could a clueless child possibly win against them? Young ■■ had no choice but to fall for their rehearsed performance.
‘It’s a miracle I actually succeeded…’
The Association had chosen their pawn well. Raven’s lips curled into a crooked smile.
Miraculously, ■■ survived long enough to reach the Abyss and install the portal. But the Association’s schemes didn’t end there.
Just as he turned to leave, thinking it was over, the portal opened—and then—
KWAAANG!!!
An explosion erupted.
They wanted no loose ends, and they needed time before monsters could pour onto the surface. For that simple reason, they had rigged the portal to explode the moment it opened.
They intended to wipe out both the discarded pawn and the monsters rushing toward the open gate!
‘I nearly died.’
Looking back now, the memory was so horrific that he sometimes wondered if dying would have been kinder.
His entire body had been charred black, sizzling with a sickening sound. His eyes, once glowing red and illuminating the world, had lost both color and function in the blast. His Sculpted Soul had long since evaporated.
Staying alive in that state had been pure agony.
‘I suppose it was fortunate my Sculpted Soul was a small-eyed fox rather than a large beast. That’s why I didn’t die instantly.’
No—at the time, it had felt closer to misfortune.
A Sculpted Soul and its master were one and the same. Whatever the fragment saw or heard, the master experienced as well. If the fragment’s leg broke, the master couldn’t walk. If its neck was strangled, the master couldn’t breathe. The shock of the fragment’s death would have been devastating.
He must have blacked out.
Whether from the pain of his evaporated Sculpted Soul or the burns covering his body, the agony had been so overwhelming that he couldn’t stay conscious.
■■ was clearly dying.
A few more seconds and his breath would have stopped.
‘And then…’
At the boundary between life and death, where time crawled—
‘Someone whispered to me.’
They offered to fill the empty space in his soul and delay death, if only he would take revenge.
These were vengeful spirits—lingering grudges and regrets given form. They whispered sweetly that they would take the place of his Sculpted Soul.
It was the moment his talent as a Shaman awakened.
‘……That’s how I met my Guardian Spirit.’
Thanks to that, he survived and was able to take revenge on the Sculpted Soul Master Association. Raven gave a bitter laugh.
“Th-that’s impossible…!”
The Association President couldn’t hide his agitation.
This had to be a nightmare. A terrible, vivid nightmare.
Otherwise, how could the Association have collapsed in less than three hours? An organization with hundreds of years of history!
“This… this is a dream—!”
“A dream?”
“……”
“Really?”
He wanted to believe it was just a nightmare, nothing more than a realistic dream. But the bone-deep cold, the pain, and the thick blood soaking the ground refused to let him escape into denial.
The Sculpted Soul Master Association President slowly raised his head and looked up at the man who had caused this catastrophe. The strange green eyes gazing down at him were captivating. Next came the black hair.
It wasn’t the color he remembered, but the facial features hadn’t changed, so there was no mistaking it.
“■■……”
“It’s been a while, President. About ten years, isn’t it?”
The boy who had left with white hair and red eyes now stood before him as a young man with black hair and green eyes.
His curiosity about the changed appearance lasted only a moment. When the clouds parted and the full moon appeared behind the young man, the full extent of the Association’s ruin came into view. No one could dwell on trivial details in the face of such horror.
The half-destroyed Association building. Corpses scattered everywhere. Blood so abundant it had soaked the grass beneath it.
Once he took it all in, his heart strangely calmed.
“……So you came back alive after all.”
“That’s how it turned out.”
“Your abilities shouldn’t have made it possible. How did you manage it?”
“Turns out I had a talent for shamanism. It awakened when I faced death.”
Back then, ■■ had answered the vengeful spirits’ whispers with acceptance. He hadn’t had a choice.
It was the first time he had seen the world, the first time he had looked at the sky. There were still so many things he wanted to know, so many injustices he couldn’t accept. He hadn’t wanted his life to end so meaninglessly.
So he had said:
“Fine… anything is fine. Just let me live.”
For a brief moment, silence fell.
Then—
“Kekekeke!”
The vengeful spirits laughed.
Their chilling voices shook the soul and echoed through the space. At the same time, an unpleasant presence began forcing its way into the empty vessel of his body.
“Ugh… hng, urgh……”
It was horrific.
The pain was bad enough, but the revulsion was worse. He felt like he might vomit if he let his guard down, yet he could only endure, cold sweat dripping down his face, because he had to survive.
“How dare these lesser beings—”
Flash!
A pure white light enveloped everything.
“Begone.”
“Kyaaaaah!!”
A scream tore through the air as if ears were being ripped apart. But it lasted only a moment.
Silence returned instantly, followed by a gentle warmth. His body was cleanly healed. The pain vanished, and the soul that had been trying to escape found temporary stability.
He felt a hand gently brushing his eyes.
“Your eyes… they won’t recover after all.”
A low, steady voice.
“No matter how desperate you are, to think you’d offer your body to those things……”
Sorrow and displeasure colored the tone.
“You need something to fill the place left by your lost Sculpted Soul. If that’s what you require, then I shall provide it, my child.”
Another soul stepped into the space within his body. Unlike the vengeful spirits that had tried to force their way in, this one moved differently.
It asked for permission—slowly, gently, taking up only as much space as the lost Sculpted Soul had occupied. It stopped at the point where it could keep the remaining soul from leaking out.
As the foreign soul entered, his white hair darkened to black. The nameless being stroked ■■’s hair and whispered,
“Never attempt such recklessness again.”
“Wh-who……?”
“……I am your ancestor. I have been watching over you as your Guardian Spirit.”
……Thus, in a life built on misfortune, ■■ encountered his first great stroke of luck.
A fortune that would likely never come twice.
‘After that, monsters swarmed in, but the Guardian Spirit handled everything.’
Ending his reminiscence, ■■ smiled at the Association President, his eyes curving.
“It’s all thanks to you.”
“……”
The President’s lips trembled, unsure what to say.
Watching him, ■■ wiped the expression from his face. The emotionless mask looked down at the President like a judge from the underworld.
“I realized something while destroying this Association.”
“……?”
“Both I and every member of this Association carry two or three vengeful spirits with us.”
“……”
“Even those who never properly operated as Sculpted Soul Masters seem to have them, simply because they belonged to the Association.”
That must be why vengeful spirits had attached themselves to him as well. In the end, it had allowed him to meet his Guardian Spirit.
His voice grew even colder.
“There’s no way they could have opened a gate between the Abyss and the Surface on their first try. How many people did you send into the Abyss?”
One, two……
The green eyes that had been counting the vengeful spirits clinging to the President’s back finally returned to him, unable to finish counting.
There were too many.
“How many people did you kill?”
Far too many.
“……Does it even matter?”
There were those sacrificed in experiments to create stronger Sculpted Souls. There were those unjustly sent to the Abyss and killed.
The Association had sacrificed the few for the sake of the many Sculpted Soul Masters, and as a result, “Sculpted Soul Masters” had been recognized as heroes during the Gate crisis. They had achieved their goal.
He had no intention of claiming innocence. But he also had no intention of repenting.
So the Association President raised his head shamelessly and said,
“In the end, we accomplished our objective. That’s all that matters.”
They had done it for the future of all Sculpted Soul Masters.
Power gathered in ■■’s fist.
“……Then why attach fake parents to the young masters?”
“Because children desperate for affection are the easiest to control. I had hoped you would remain a child forever, be used up, and die……”
“……”
“What a shame.”
After the Association President’s curse-like words, Raven cut off his thoughts and glanced sideways. Liv, fidgeting anxiously, came into view.
“You don’t need to worry about it.”
It had nothing to do with her.
But as the one who had personally destroyed the Association and then revived it, she couldn’t possibly stay uninvolved. If someone had gone so far as to destroy it themselves, their grudge must run deep. Liv closed her mouth.
Raven leaned back against the pillow as if he had expected this.
‘At least for a while, Liv won’t bring up anything related to Sculpted Souls.’
She wouldn’t easily mention her condition, and even if she did, she wouldn’t dare ask him for help with both hands outstretched.
Thinking this was enough, he closed his eyes—
“……Come to think of it, the mercenary who accompanied us to the city gates.”
A calm voice reached his ears, as if she had already composed herself.
“I’ve been keeping an eye on the mercenary who traveled with Master. It seems that mercenary is currently in quite a dangerous situation.”
She couldn’t give up so easily on a matter of life and death. If she couldn’t ask for help directly, she would create a situation where she could. If a “favor” was impossible, she would make a “deal” to survive.
That was why Liv brought up another topic instead of giving up and leaving.
Raven understood the situation from those words alone.
“Since Master is currently unable to move freely, I was thinking of helping in your stead……”
“……”
“Would it be all right if I asked for one favor in return?”
Even after losing her Sculpted Soul, the eyes that refused to go out burned with desperate longing for life.
……Yes, this was exactly the kind of gaze he had hoped for when he gave her that name. The child who had once looked at her own Sculpted Soul with eyes devoid of attachment to life had grown so much, now burning with ambition. It was deeply satisfying, but……
Raven stared at her for a long moment, then squeezed his eyes shut and opened them again.
“Liv, my child.”
His precious, heartbreaking new sprout.
“You don’t have to go that far.”
“……Pardon?”
“Until now, I stayed still because it seemed you all had a lot piled up. But it’s about time I started moving.”
He was someone who couldn’t afford to stop.
He hadn’t gained any useful information from the mythological era books he had read while staying here. His rest ended here.
It was a shame he couldn’t see his other disciples before leaving, but it couldn’t be helped.
“And it seems you don’t understand something.”
He set down the crow that had been restlessly looking around as if trying to grasp the situation, then approached Liv. The second disciple, sensing danger, stepped back hesitantly, but Raven gently pulled her into his arms. While she stiffened in surprise, he raised one hand.
Thud!
Liv’s body went limp.
“Eckhart, that mercenary isn’t someone important to me. And I’m the kind of person who can knock out his own disciple without hesitation.”
He felt the crow’s persistent gaze. Raven lifted the unconscious disciple in his arms and laid her on the bed, flashing a twisted smile.
His head had already turned toward the open door.
“You’re all adults now, after all.”
How quick on the uptake.
Altare, with navy-blue hair and sky-blue eyes, stood blocking the entrance, watching him with cold eyes, having sensed the unusual atmosphere.
Altare quietly curled his lips as he watched his master cover Liv with a blanket.
“Are you trying to run away?”
“That’s the plan.”
“How fortunate.”
His teeth showed, and a savage smile spread across his face. Bloodlust rippled through the room.
“Now I can kill you without any issues.”